How good is the University of St Andrews?

[indiraisindiaisindira]

DD has a conditional offer for history there and she's considering it even though it's 10 hours away!

It looks very traditional! I like the look of the small town life, much safer and less worrying for me

How prestigious is it?

I see that it is 3rd in the league tables this year. Is it really the third best university in the UK?

How well regarded is it for getting into the city for banking/law?

We are going up to visit it for a feel of the place soon

[wigglybeezer]

I've just looked up the figures for percentages for numbers of Scottish students at St Andrew's, around a third, by far the lowest of the Scottish unis, the successful application figures are a bit illuminating too: @20% for Scots, 40% for rUK and over 60% for overseas. DS is predicted As in all his Highers but I think I better make sure he has some alternatives worked out.

[BertrandRussell]

Trivial question. In my day at St. Andrews, "rahs" were called "yahs" Has it changed?

And the yahs (English and Scottish) used to call the Scottish students Wee Marys and Wee Alasdairs. I do hope it's not as socially divided now- although I know it is.

[dementedma]

Lol my friend went to St Andrews and he mentioned Wee Mary's and Wee Alistair's!

[wigglybeezer]

Oh God, I'm feeling annoyed just thinking about that! DS couldn't care less about being invited to dinner parties etc. but I wouldn't like him to be talked over in tutorials.

[stonecircle]

Yahs in my day too Bertrand! St Andrews has always attracted a lot of very posh people but in my day there were also an awful lot of people from ordinary backgrounds. Of course the balance may have changed due to the Royal factor.

Worth bearing in mind though that being posh/well off, whatever you want to call it, doesn't automatically make someone unpleasant! I mixed with people from all sorts of backgrounds and had the time of my life.

My concern now would be that St Andrews is so small and the number of students has more than doubled since I left in the early 8Os. I'm sure that must cause a lot of problems.

[BertrandRussell]

I have to preface everything I say with "in my day". So, in my day, one of the problems was that lots of the English students were people who had just missed Oxbridge. So as well as being posh, they were also very clever and very confident. And had often had a year out. And had done A levels, so had specialized early. And were the sort of people happy to be a long way from home. And a significant number of Scottish students came straight from highers, so were younger, and had been doing 6 subjects not 3. Which was a bit of a recipe for disaster for tutorials in particular. Sometimes the problem was sheer obnoxiousness on the part of the English students. But sometimes it wasn't- it was just a case of starting from very different places.

[SharkBaitOohHaha]

My concern now would be that St Andrews is so small and the number of students has more than doubled since I left in the early 8Os. I'm sure that must cause a lot of problems.

Yes, housing is an absolute nightmare. Both in terms of trying to find accommodation, and having clusters of student houses in otherwise residential streets (would be fine elsewhere, but in a town as small as St Andrews, not so much).

Another part of why I moved to Dundee after first year!

[voluptuagoodshag]

I didn't go to St Andrews Uni but even from just going round the town it's not like any other Uni town, not even like Cambridge or Oxford. It's quite small and beautiful but out on a limb on the coast of Fife and it just feels different. Really posh. But it sounds like that's what you're looking for. I imagine it's the perfect place to network in the right circles. For me personally though, I'd hate it. Would feel claustrophobic and way out my comfort zone on the social side of things. I do know a couple of folk who went there and they are lovely though. Also know a couple who live there and would classify them as yahs in the extreme.

[user1480669468]

Can't mention St Andrews without the crisis of student housing they have there. You are guaranteed your first year in halls but there is very little that is affordable. Most is "catered" which suits the large amount of students that have come from boarding schools. Renting private flats is extortionate and there is very little available. When I was a student people camped out side of the letting agents over night on the day they would release their lists of available properties for the next academic year. You would also have to put down a deposit before even viewing the properties as they went so quickly.

[wigglybeezer]

That sounds stressful, I have a vague plan to buy a wee flat in Cupar if necessary, but Dundee might work, it has a Games Workshop which is a bonus for DS ( and a branch of Fisher and Donaldson!).

[BertrandRussell]

There used to be a Fisher and Donaldson in St Andrews- I hope it's still there!

I reckon you'd be better off buying in Cupar if you're buying to rent to students-that's where the posh kids want to live......

[SharkBaitOohHaha]

I didn't know anyone who lived in Cupar. Maybe I didn't know post enough people!

Fisher and Donaldson was still there as of last year. They went through a phase of having a 24 hour pie-dispensing vending machine. Not sure if that's still a thing though - there was uproar in the local community

[SharkBaitOohHaha]

Enough posh people, that should say!

[wigglybeezer]

I didn't realise posh kids were buying in Cupar, it just seemed more affordable than St Andrew's and I've always liked it. We're not posh by St Andrew's standards ( state schools all the way) but we are lucky enough to have some savings due to inheritances from thrifty grandparents.

[stonecircle]

I knew a few people from Devon and Cornwall in my time there. Now that was a journey. Lots of people used to travel up fromLondon on the sleeper. But I don't think people expected to go home so much in those days. I was about 4 hours journey away and only went home at the end of term.

I do get that some posh people can be loud and noisy but part of the fun of being at uni is mixing with different social classes. At least that's what I say to DS who keeps commenting on all the posh kids at Exeter!

For a shy young girl like me from a working class family it was a huge eye opener to see just how confident the privately educated and wealthy students at St Andrews were. One of my best friends there (whose parents bought him a 3 storey house in the centre of town) gate crashed my English tutorial on Raisin Monday (when students do lots of silly things). He was a medic but happily chatted away about Chaucer despite clearly knowing very little about him. I don't know if his 'anything is possible' attitude rubbed off on me, but it certainly made me question my own attitude to life. It was also good preparation for work and having to deal with people from all walks of life.

[FatherJemimaRacktool]

How prestigious is it? Er... Prince William met Katherine Middleton there...

Despite this, it does have a very good academic reputation.

Not the 3rd best university in the UK (for sciences, I'd guess that would be Oxford, after Imperial and Cambridge; for everything else maybe UCL, if you had to pick one), though probably in the top 10. If your DD is thinking about employability, this just came out: uk.businessinsider.com/times-higher-education-best-uk-universities-for-employability-2016-11/

[crayfish]

It wasn't for me, it's a small town quite far away from the 'bright lights' and student lifestyle that I wanted. I know people say you can get to Glasgow/Edinburgh easily but you're not going to go there for a night out really.

I ended up going to Glasgow to do History and loved every minute. Saying that though, 'prestige' wasn't high on my agenda.

[Sunbeam18]

Fisher and Donaldson is still there, don't worry

[BertrandRussell]

I am so craving a fudge doughnut. And the pie dispenser sounds pure genius.

[wigglybeezer]

I have a celebration cakes leaflet from F&D, you can order a giant fudge doughnut with a personal message on as a birthday cake.

[BertrandRussell]

Be still, my heart......

[Sunbeam18]

Cray, I'd say Glasgow was prestigious too! Though I'm biased too

[Kr1stina]

Glasgow is in the top 20 universities in the UK for history, so I'd say thats pretty good.

[dotdotdotmustdash]

Wigglybeezer
DS is predicted As in all his Highers but I think I better make sure he has some alternatives worked out.

My Dd (who had applied but didn't fancy St As at the open day) actually got 5 As in her Highers in 5th year and was rejected from St Andrews. She got unconditional offers from 4 other Scottish Unis including Edinburgh and Glasgow. It's not all about the results.

[AddictedtoLove]

crayfish I don't think "prestige" should be any kind of priority on anyone's list